Rugby

Bulls ready to throw down gauntlet to Leinster

‘A great benchmark for us to see where we are as a group,’ says Jake White of his in-form side’s visit to Dublin

Jake White: 'It is an away game playing against a really good team.' Photograph: Andy Watts/Inpho

Johnny Watterson
Fri Mar 29 2024 - 06:00

A valid question is whether a South African coach will lift the URC trophy at the end of the season.

With the Bulls’ arrival to the RDS on Friday night, coach Jake White and Leinster’s Jacques Nienaber would be candidates to do just that.

Both World Cup-winning coaches, White was head of the Springboks when they won the World Cup in 2007 and Nienaber is decorated with winners’ medals from the last two tournaments.

“A great benchmark for us to see where we are as a group,” said White this week of coming to Dublin.

READ MORE

“It is an away game playing against a really good team. The bulk of those guys play international rugby for Ireland and they have just won back-to-back Six Nations. At the World Cup, they beat the Springboks who went on to win it.

“One thing they are probably leaders at is understanding how to compete in both the BKT URC and the Champions Cup.”

Second on the URC table after last week’s 31-10 win over Dragons in Wales, like Leinster the Bulls have also secured a home tie, against French club Lyon, in the last 16 of the Champions Cup.

Ominously, they have been one of the few sides to inflict heavy damage on the Dublin-based team.

Leinster can hardly forget the schooling of their youngsters in South Africa last season, when they came away after a bruising 62-7 loss on Loftus Versfeld. It was also the Bulls that stunned Leinster fans in the Aviva Stadium when they beat the home team by a point, 27-26, in the 2022 URC semi-final.

Outhalf and Springbok Johan Goosen is second only to Edinburgh’s Ben Healy on the points table with 98 to Healy’s 117 and leads the URC pack in conversions with 31 so far.

The Bulls have made six changes to the match-day 23 including that of Elrigh Louw who returns to the fold. Louw was sidelined by a shoulder injury but the bulldozing forward returns to the starting line-up alongside Marco van Staden and former Ulster player and Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee in the backrow.

The Pretoria side have been in strong form this season with ambitions to top the table. Van Staden, wingers Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie and fullback Willie le Roux were all part of the 33-man Springbok World Cup winning squad.

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson

Johnny Watterson is a sports writer with The Irish Times

LATEST STORIES